Ionic bond introduction, network

The ionic model provides a simple and painless introduction to bond valence theory. It introduces not only the concept of a bond but also the notion that an atom shares its valence among the bonds that it forms in a way that can be easily determined by experiment. In a more advanced course students who have done some elementary circuit theory in physics could be introduced to the network equations (Eq. 14 in [1]) derived by showing that the bond network is equivalent to a capacitive electrical circuit. The bond valence is the quantity that in other models is approximated by bmid order or bond number, but only the bond valence rigorously obeys the valence sum rule. 

---